Episode 1 – Responsiveness in dogs

Hello and welcome to episode 1 of Animale Thérapie, the animal behaviour podcast.

Today, we’re going to talk about canine reactivity and give you the ‘real’ definition. People often get the definition wrong. We call a dog ‘reactive,’ but reactive to what? Does it mean aggressive? Does it mean dominant? What exactly does it mean? We will also discuss the risk factors for reactivity. Is the dog born that way? Is it our fault if our dog is reactive? And finally, we will also discuss the processes at work during reactivity.

Definition

Before we go any further, I think it’s really important to define the terms precisely. A reactive dog, literally, means that it reacts to stimuli. But on the other hand, if a dog no longer reacted to any stimuli at all, it would simply mean that it was dead. By definition, living beings behave according to elements in their environment. So ultimately, what does it mean to be reactive? What do we mean by a reactive dog? Most of the time, reactivity is confused with aggression.

It is entirely possible for a dog to be reactive, i.e. to react extremely strongly to a stimulus, for example by reacting very strongly to another dog or a human passing by, by approaching them, barking or, conversely, running away, because ultimately, reactivity means reacting to an environmental stimulus, whether by approaching it, freezing or simply running away. In any case, it means reacting strongly to an environmental stimulus. In fact, reactivity is considered a problem when it affects an individual’s well-being. In the definition we are going to use today, I am not going to consider a dog that sees another dog and wants to play with it, or a dog that sees a toy and picks it up in its mouth to chew on it, to be reactive. It is not reactivity in the sense that it does not involve strong emotions that affect the individual’s daily well-being, cause peaks of stress and lead to repetitive behaviours. As long as there are no strong emotions associated with the behaviours, there is no reason to want to stop them.

Because, once again, as I said, if our animal stops reacting, it means that it is dead, and that would simply not be normal. As long as its behaviour is not problematic for it or for us on a daily basis, there is no reason to want to stop it. Now, I think you see where I’m going with reactivity, which is that if your dog reacts very strongly to another dog, to humans, to a particular noise, and it affects its well-being, then there’s a good chance you have a reactive dog. To try to explain a little better what mechanisms are at work, what we consider and what I consider to be reactivity is when your dog reacts to a situation and you feel like you’ve completely lost control. That is to say, in these moments, despite the fact that normally he knows very well, for example, how to sit or lie down or any other trick he might usually do with you, when you see that your dog seems completely obsessed, he seems to have completely lost control, you no longer have any connection with him. He seems completely in his own world, completely focused on the object of his reactivity at that moment. So here, I’m talking about reactivity. I’m talking about reactivity only in those moments, since the rest of the time, as we’ve seen, it’s normal. It’s normal to react. To give you an analogy with human behaviour, it’s very similar to moments when, for example, I say ‘Boo!’ and then ‘we jump’. The act of jumping does not involve consciousness. We don’t need to have thought beforehand about how we are going to behave, such as when I might write, drive a car, or choose my words when talking to someone, for example. All these complex behaviours that go through the conscious mind, that require me to consciously do an activity or engage in something, whatever I choose, reactivity does not go through that phase of consciousness. And with the resulting behaviour, it feels like our dog has completely lost control of its own behaviour. That’s why, in these moments, telling it to ‘stop’, telling it to come back, telling it ‘no’ doesn’t work. It feels like we no longer have any control, and we no longer feel in control of the situation either.

Ultimately, everyone loses a little control over what is happening, both the dog and us. And this is what we need to understand: when it comes to reactivity, the dog is just as much a victim as we are, having to manage its behaviour. To use a human example that I think you will relate to, it’s a bit like being allergic to pollen. As soon as we are exposed to the object of our allergy, the body reacts on its own. No matter how hard I try to reason with myself, no matter how hard I try to say to myself, ‘Why am I reacting like this?’, it’s useless. I can see that my body continues to react regardless of what I try to do, regardless of what I try to put in place. The only solution in these moments, to stop our body from reacting, is to stop being exposed to the stimuli that are causing the problem. In this case, for example, for pollen, I could wear a mask to protect my nostrils and mucous membranes, or I could go inside a house sheltered from the wind and anything that could potentially carry pollen.

Common misconceptions

I would like to make a brief aside about preconceived ideas related to responsiveness. With what I have just said, technically, I think you already understand that ignoring the dog, for example, will not help. Because often, we feel extremely guilty as owners. When our dog reacts like this, we often hear things like, ‘It’s because you spoil him too much, it’s your fault,’ or worse, the one I find most guilt-inducing: ‘Yes, but anyway, you just need to relax more. It’s because you’re stressed that your dog reacts like this.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. If you are stressed, your reactions, fears and expectations are ultimately just the result of your experiences with your dog. You know that he is likely to react like this because you have already experienced it, but you are not the cause of this behaviour. Rather, it is because they happened at a certain point in time that you too began to feel stressed and anticipate them. Ultimately, you are in exactly the same situation as your dog, in that when he goes for a walk, for example, he anticipates the stimuli he is likely to encounter.

For example, if he reacts to dogs, he will potentially anticipate this as soon as he goes outside. We may see him being a little vigilant, perhaps he will anticipate it, perhaps there are even places, for example, if we walk past a garden and we know that there is a dog there, there is a dog and that every time, with that dog, things go badly, there is a chance that every time you arrive in the street, even if the dog is not in the garden, he will have associated that place with something negative. He will have associated it with the stimulus and the place itself will become problematic. In fact, this can really lead to anxiety, even towards the environment. It can even lead to a dog that ends up being constantly stressed because it anticipates, depending on the location, the stimuli it is likely to encounter and which, it knows, will cause it to react independently of its will.

In the category of ‘preconceived ideas’, we also often find the attempt to dominate. I won’t dwell on this because it has been thoroughly debunked over time. Your dogs are not trying to dominate others. And above all, this label is dangerous because it justifies our dog’s behaviour without looking at the reasons behind it. Why does our dog act this way? And so, the risk is to leave him in these situations and create a risk of escalation until one day there is a real aggression, a real bite, with all the consequences that this could have. Another preconceived idea that may exist is ‘He doesn’t understand the rules.’ ‘My dog doesn’t understand the rules’ or ‘Your dog doesn’t understand the rules.’ Most of the time, dogs are very well trained. What we call ‘understanding the rules’ is simply knowing how to communicate with members of their own species. This happens during the so-called ‘sensitive period’ of a puppy’s life, between five and eight weeks, and it extends a little longer, but that’s not what we’re interested in today. This ‘He doesn’t have the codes’ is really a label used to describe a situation that is used indiscriminately.

On top of that, it implies that some dogs are well-behaved and others are not, and that this is inherent to their nature. And as I said earlier, it’s not that simple. Most dogs are well-behaved simply because they have been in contact with other dogs until a certain age. And the fact that they know how to communicate with members of their own species is simply the result of what they have learned in their lives. If you have a dog that has been in contact with other dogs all its life and has had good experiences, there is every chance that it will simply be coded. Then, of course, its communication will depend on its experiences. That’s why it’s so important, when you have a puppy, not to immerse it and throw it in the middle of other dogs, but rather to cultivate extremely positive interactions with other members of its species to ensure you have the most well-balanced dog possible. Now, when we think that a dog doesn’t understand the codes, it’s often because, for example, the classic situation is ‘I have a dog and then another dog comes along, rushes at him and doesn’t stop, even though my dog clearly shows him that he doesn’t want to continue’.

And at that moment, the dog insists, barks at him, gets excited, invites him to play. In fact, this is often linked to the famous preconceived idea that ‘he wants to play’. At times like these, it’s no longer play. It becomes harassment. And often, at times like these, we say that the dog is not coded because it doesn’t understand the other dog, as if it didn’t understand that the other dog no longer wanted to play at all. In reality, it’s a little more complex than that, because if you follow what I’m saying about reactivity, it’s an automatic behaviour. It’s exactly like an allergic reaction, it’s exactly like a startle or being surprised. And it’s really hard to understand that this is possible, but it’s exactly the case. The body can no longer help but react to a situation and will continue to do so, no matter what happens, regardless of the consequences. Whether it gets punished, whether the dog ends up biting it, whether there is aggression or whether it simply ignores it.

The behaviour will not stop, regardless of what happens on the other side. And this is where it can become problematic for the other dog, who will try to do everything it can to calm things down. But despite its best efforts, it will not work. And so there is a real risk of escalation in these situations. Why? Because, in fact, our reactive dog will continue to react exactly as it usually does in response to the trigger. So here we have a reactive dog who went up to another dog who didn’t want to get excited, for example, or run around or play. And our reactive dog will continue to exhibit the same behaviours as usual without stopping. If our dog, who didn’t want to play, says ‘stop’ once, twice, three times, and our reactive dog was no longer playing in a healthy way, but was being reactive and couldn’t help but respond to the sight of this dog in the environment. At that point, we can all agree that it is no longer play, it is no longer a matter of rules. We are truly in a state of reactivity where, regardless of the consequences, regardless of what happens, our dog cannot help but react.

The elements of questioning

What might tip you off is when you have a dog and you try to call it, but it doesn’t respond, it doesn’t come back, you lose control and you have to go and fetch it. That’s what we call reactivity. The problem is that it’s never overnight that you have an aggressive dog, it’s never like that. Or it’s very rare and not pathological, of course, but most of the time it’s much more subtle than that. At first, you have your little puppy, and you say to yourself, “That’s normal, it’s a puppy. ‘ He goes up to all the dogs, he loves dogs, and so we attribute an intention to our dog’s behaviour and he can’t help but go up to them every time he sees them. As soon as he’s on the leash, he can’t help but pull, even if it means strangling himself. Here, we can clearly see that even if he hurts himself, he can’t stop himself from behaving this way. We can really see the beginnings of this reactivity starting to emerge. The danger is that if our dog can’t stop himself one day, he will be put in his place by the other dogs.

And indeed, what happens in these moments is that our reactive dog, who simply couldn’t help but exhibit this behaviour after seeing the other dog, for example, will learn that the other dog is potentially dangerous. The other dog could potentially hurt him, so there will be an escalation in behaviour because our dog will continue to behave in the same way as before. He will continue to approach other dogs as usual, except that now there will be more and more negative emotions associated with seeing the other dog. This is how we can have a reactivity that very subtly drifts towards aggression, where, after a while, we can end up with a dog that rushes towards the other dog without stopping and bites it directly without warning. Simply because it will anticipate that when I approach a dog, when I am out walking, when the dog refuses to play with me or whatever, then there is danger, so I know I am going to get eaten.

So, I anticipate and bite before I get bitten. Ultimately, all these examples show that reactivity is not that simple, it’s not black and white. It’s not a case of ‘either you have a reactive dog or you don’t’. We have a dog that has the potential to become reactive. We have a dog that may already be reactive and we don’t realise it. Perhaps we have misinterpreted its behaviour. Perhaps we thought it wanted to play all along, when in fact it was already showing the early signs of latent reactivity. Often, when you work with a professional, what they will do is determine exactly what the situation is in relation to your dog. They will really help you see things more clearly, know how to read your dog’s body language, how to interpret it correctly, analyse situations so that you can then put in place things that are appropriate for your dog and your situation. In any case, if you have a dog that is known to be reactive, if you are afraid that this may be the case, or if you find that your dog has a particular sensitivity and has the potential to become reactive, there are always small clues that can help you identify these kinds of things.

I strongly advise you to seek professional help because it will save you time, both for your dog and for yourself. It will really help everyone relax, both you and your dog. Seriously, seek professional help. In any case, I think it’s really essential. Here, a little disclaimer: when I talk about reactivity, I’m talking about reactivity related to stress, stress related to fears, and in particular acquired fears. I’m not talking about predation, for example. Predation is more about reactive behaviours to stimuli in a given context, which are inherent to our dog’s abilities, which are innate, because our dogs have predatory mechanisms. It depends on the breed, but I was really talking about reactivity linked to stress, fears and anxieties. And reactivity is never binary. You can have a dog that is reactive to certain dogs in certain contexts. For example, I have often seen dogs that were only reactive to large dogs, not small ones, or vice versa.

I have also seen dogs that were only reactive to a certain breed of dog, or dogs that were only reactive to, for example, black and tan dogs. It is very common in associations to have a very specific type of reactivity. So it’s never as black and white as simply saying, ‘Is this dog OK with other dogs or not?’ or ‘Is he OK with humans or not?’ There can be much more subtle reactions, and this is often the case with dogs that are OK in certain contexts or with certain types of stimuli and not others. And again, if you seek professional help, they will be able to put in place intervention strategies that are tailored to your dog and your situation in order to be effective. Because if you work on a stimulus that doesn’t pose a problem for your dog, in a context that doesn’t pose a problem for your dog, ultimately, the day you find yourself in a situation that poses a problem with the dog or the human being that poses a problem, it will be exactly as if you had not worked on anything up to that point, since you had not worked on the underlying issues of that dog in those contexts.

Risk factors:

Now that we’ve said all that, and since we’re really talking about reactivity linked to stress, fears and anxieties, what are the risk factors? Are you really the source of your dog’s reactivity? Are you the problem? Or is it the environment? Or is it inherent to your dog? Are you the problem? Is your dog the problem? Is the environment the problem? How can you make sense of all this?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. In fact, genetic markers have been identified in relation to fears and anxieties. So, there is a risk that by choosing certain breeds, or at least certain bloodlines or individuals, and unfortunately, for example, in the case of individuals born in association, born on the street or in private homes, we know nothing about their genetics, we don’t know what their parents were like. So, let’s say that in this case, it’s a bit like playing the lottery.

Some dogs have a genetic heritage that gives them an advantage. Unfortunately, the opposite can also be true. And we won’t know this unless we are breeders and the breeding programme is based on the behavioural characteristics of the breeding stock. Even then, it’s not that simple. Because, although there are genetic markers, in a litter of ten dogs, half of them may have a particular sensitivity and carry these genetic markers, while the other half may be perfectly healthy. Similarly, you can have two absolutely fantastic parents and a majority of the litter that is exceptional, while another part of the litter may be sensitive. It’s really a matter of stacking the odds in your favour, but you can never know exactly how a puppy will turn out, even if you try to stack the odds 100% in your favour. You still have to do it, but you can’t anticipate everything.

And then there are other risk factors. There are congenital risk factors during pregnancy. How did the pregnancy go? Some things pass through the placenta. There are also epigenetic factors that can be passed down through several generations. Epigenetics means that we can acquire something during our lifetime. For example, if we have experienced trauma, intense emotions or stress during our lifetime, this can leave a mark on our DNA (more precisely, it can activate certain markers on our DNA). This is why we call it epigenetics, because it is acquired during our lifetime and can also be passed on to our offspring. This has been very well demonstrated, including in humans. Finally, the last major risk factor is the environmental conditions to which the puppy has been exposed. For example, was there an early separation from its family? Because the attachment and environment to which an individual is exposed early on, at the beginning of its life, will also have an impact on the individual’s development, both when it is a puppy and later when it grows up, on how it perceives events and how it deals with the situations it will face.

And of course, then there is lifelong learning. But in fact, two individuals who have been confronted with the same situations will not perceive them in the same way, nor will they react in the same way, nor will they have the same perceptions of the situation, nor will they draw the same conclusions, quite simply. And so it’s important to bear this in mind because even if you try to set everything up properly, you may have a dog that is more difficult than another in the same environmental conditions. You might say, ‘I’ve had dogs for 40 years, my whole life,’ but then you might come across a dog that will cause you difficulties, that will really push you to your limits, because unlike the others, it will have a different sensitivity, it will experience situations differently, it will be more sensitive to what happens to it. Even if you have a lot of experience with dogs, you are not immune to coming across a really difficult dog at some point.

There may also be factors that exacerbate reactivity, such as pain. Pain is something that is often overlooked in intervention strategies. We often forget that when a dog reacts, it may also be because it is in pain, which simply weighs it down emotionally or tires it out, causing emotional distress. I mean, anyone can understand that when you’re in pain somewhere, you’re going to be much less tolerant of things that wouldn’t have been a problem in another context. Often, when it’s appropriate and if you’re working with a professional, they will say to you at some point, ‘Be careful, I think your dog may need to see a vet for a health check-up.’ It could be joint pain, thyroid problems or something else, allergies, cancer, it could be so many things. There are certain things that can tip off a professional, who will then say, ‘Be careful, I think it’s worth taking your dog to the vet for a check-up, just to rule that out.’ That way, if there’s nothing wrong, you’ll be reassured, but if there is pain, you’ll be able to treat it. This is particularly evident when you have a dog that suddenly becomes reactive. For example, you’ve had your dog for five, six or seven years, everything has been going very well, and then suddenly it starts to be very difficult with other dogs that it used to get on very well with. This can often be a sign. Not always, but it can be a sign that you need to take your dog for a veterinary check-up to rule out any pathological causes. If you have the slightest doubt, go and see a vet. You have nothing to lose, and at worst, there is nothing wrong, which is great. Because the problem is that if there is an underlying medical condition, whatever it may be, no matter how hard you work, it won’t work. You can implement all the behavioural strategies you want, you can try to manage the situation as best you can. If you don’t address the source of this reactivity, it will eventually come back and you’ll be faced with the same problematic behaviour again. So, yes, sometimes it can be a bit expensive, but in any case, it can save you a lot of inconvenience and ups and downs that you don’t understand. So it’s worth it.

There are therefore many risk factors, which is why it is very difficult to predict.

To answer our initial question, is it your fault if your dog is reactive today, if he has fears, if he has stress, if he has anxieties? No, no, no and no. It’s simply not your fault. You cannot control all the factors that your dog has been exposed to in his life. What you can do, however, once he comes into your life and your family, is try your best to manage his environment so that he has positive experiences with other dogs and humans, gently expose him to things that could potentially scare him, and protect him as much as possible.

If, for example, he is sensitive to noise, afraid of fireworks or afraid of thunderstorms, you can try to protect him as much as possible to avoid exposing him to things that scare him too much, especially during these stages of development. Until you can work on this, you can always protect them, but ultimately, you are not responsible for how they perceive the world that is entirely their own.

The solutions

Finally, how do you deal with reactivity? First, if you have a dog that is reactive, that has difficulties, that experiences stress in certain situations or contexts, simply call a professional. That’s the best advice I can give you because it’s very difficult to consider all the factors involved on your own. There are so many factors to manage. There are many situations, and you risk hindering their progress. You may also exhaust yourself in the process.

Here, we are dealing with extremely strong emotions, which can also be exhausting for humans. It is important to understand this because, in the meantime, you are living with these behaviours on a daily basis. Don’t hesitate to seek support. That’s really my first piece of advice because, whatever I talk about today, it will never be as comprehensive as the informed opinion of a professional who can assess your situation.

Now, how exactly do we do that? When we have reactions that are linked to stress, fears or anxieties, the very first thing to do is to remove as many stress factors as possible. Why? Because when you have a dog that has been subjected to continuous stress for a number of weeks, months, or even years, and you haven’t necessarily realised that it has been under stress for so long, the mechanisms that have been at work during that time will be very strong, very ingrained, and therefore, it will not be available to work at that point.

It’s exactly as if I were a child and I was extremely stressed because there was a teacher who was ‘very mean’ and kept scolding me. And then she asks me to go to the front of the class, to the blackboard, in front of everyone, to give a presentation when I wasn’t expecting it. And on top of that, she scolds me and says, ‘Hurry up.’ What’s likely to happen is that I’ll freeze up completely and be totally paralysed. Why? Because at that moment, my brain is only thinking about the stress it is experiencing, it simply freezes. I am going to be completely dumbfounded, when perhaps, and this is the irony, I know exactly what to do. Perhaps under other circumstances, I would have been absolutely perfect for this exercise, but here, stress is overcoming reason. And the same is true for our dogs. Asking a living being who is fighting for survival at that moment, who is exhibiting automatic behaviours involving extremely strong emotions, to be available for whatever task you have decided to set them will be ineffective.

The very first thing to put in place is management. In other words, protecting your dog to minimize the amount of stress they will be exposed to in a day. For example, you have a dog that is reactive to other dogs. A classic and effective management strategy that we could apply on a daily basis would be to try to go out either to different places or at different times to try to reduce the emotional burden your dog feels. That’s the first thing. It is essential that when our dog goes out, it is not constantly on high alert, constantly anticipating negative things that might happen to it during the walk. Otherwise, once you are in that environment, you will not even be able to get their attention, you will not even be able to do any training, simply because they will already be very emotional, even though nothing has happened to them. Really, the first thing to put in place is this management, allowing them to calm down as much as possible and not feel stressed.

The problem with stress and fear is that they cause spikes in cortisol levels in the brain, and it takes a long time for the cortisol to be eliminated. The longer it lingers, the more likely our dog is to be sensitive and react again if exposed to the same or a similar situation. Our goal is to protect them. That’s the first thing to do. Only after we have protected our dog, when they are ready to work and implement changes, will we begin what is known as systematic desensitization.

Desensitization is the gradual exposure to a stimulus that is so low in intensity that it causes little or no reaction from the individual. For example, if you have a dog that reacts to other dogs, every time it sees a dog, say a German Shepherd, it turns into a monster at the end of the leash, pulling, barking, choking, spinning around, and baring its teeth. We could imagine a whole range of behaviors that make us think that the dog is in distress. The best thing to do is to back off, to lower the intensity of the stimulus. This is exactly what we do with desensitization protocols for allergies, for example. In other words, we want to reach a threshold where the body no longer feels compelled to react because the intensity is low enough to no longer trigger the automatic reaction. This concept is very important because often, when we do desensitization, we simply stop at the definition of “I must expose him” to the stimuli that are causing the problem. And the risk is that we end up immersing them. The risk for our dog, who, for example, is reactive to other dogs, is that we push them too hard and therefore expose them to dogs too quickly when they are not yet ready. And thus causing learned helplessness—I will certainly discuss this in a future episode—causing escalation, apathy, or even more problems later on in other contexts.

There is a risk of compensatory behaviors emerging because our dog still doesn’t feel well and will express these emotions differently. Ultimately, this is hiding one problem only to create another. Immersion does not protect your dog at all and does not allow your dog to continue to maintain its emotional well-being. And that is really the most important distinction. When we do desensitization, we can’t just settle for exposure. And that’s where, very often, in order to know how to measure it, to know exactly where we stand, in what context, how we should expose our dog for it to be effective, a professional is absolutely necessary. What I’m talking about here is what’s called the tolerance threshold. The goal is to expose your dog below the maximum level at which it will react. This concept of tolerance threshold needs to be defined in order to know what it means for your dog. It depends on the stimulus, which also plays a role in the equation.

I have seen dogs that have completely different tolerance thresholds depending on whether they are large or small dogs, and depending on how the other dog behaves. If the dog ignores it, then perhaps the tolerance threshold will be very high. But if, for example, the dog stares at it, then the tolerance threshold may be very difficult to manage and you will have to back off a lot. Because we could imagine, and this is often the case, that our dog, who has difficulties with other dogs, every time he has been bitten, for example, by another dog, the warning sign was that the other dog was staring at him. Now, he will anticipate this. As soon as he sees a dog staring at him, he will immediately think, “I’m going to get eaten.” This can be much more difficult to manage depending on the behavior of the other dog. And that’s precisely why I said, “Be careful, the situations you expose him to will be very different.” Working with a professional is ideal for getting the best understanding and the best possible approach to your dog.

In any case, the professional you work with will teach you how to read your dog. Because reading your dog and being able to interpret its behavior correctly, being able to anticipate, to see that when your dog starts to freeze, to stare straight ahead, to have its ears laid back, then potentially, at that point, it is already starting to feel stressed, and the idea is to act in a certain way to prevent the situation from escalating, to protect your dog before it becomes too difficult for them to cope with. Whatever strategy needs to be put in place at that moment, the idea is really to give you the tools you need to know how to react in all situations as effectively as possible.

I’ll stop here for this episode. Today, we looked at the definition of reactivity. Using numerous examples, we saw all the risk factors as well as preconceived ideas and the beginnings of the work to be done. We’ll talk about this again in a future episode to explore the subject in greater depth. We’ll talk about labels, dominance, breed, and many other topics. We will see how labels limit us, how they shape our relationship with the world and how we interpret the behavior of our animals.

I have dedicated an entire webinar to responsiveness, which lasts four and a half hours and is much more comprehensive than what we have been able to cover today. I highly recommend watching it if you want to go further, learn more, get to the bottom of responsiveness, and implement effective strategies with your dog. You can find it at the bottom of the page.

If you have any questions or comments about today’s episode, please feel free to comment. For future episodes, you can also suggest a topic that is important to you.

You can also follow me on Instagram for more information, tips, and free resources: @animaletherapie and on Facebook. Do you have a behavioral issue with your pet and want ethical and professional support? You can contact me directly at contact@animalethérapie.com!